DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


THE  OPEN  SHOP  and 
INDUSTRIAL  LIBERTY 


by 

WALTER  GORDON  MERRITT 


* <T  T NION  membership  is  a precarious 
LJ  privilege.  It  may  be  arbitrarily 
granted  and  arbitrarily  withdrawn. 
That  is  why  America  is  unwilling  to  weigh 
in  the  same  balance  the  right  of  a man  to 
work  and  membership  in  a private  society. 
There  is  no  liberty  under  the  law  when  such 
membership  is  a condition  precedent  to 
the  exercise  of  a fundamental  right  of 


citizenship." 

Second  Edition 

Published  by 

THE  LEAGUE  FOR  INDUSTRIAL  RIGHTS 
42  Broadway,  New  York  City 

INDUSTRIAL  LIBERTY  SERIES  No.  1. 


THE  OPEN  SHOP  AND 
INDUSTRIAL  LIBERTY 


By  WALTER  GORDON  MERRITT 


Second  Edition 
June  1922 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/openshopindustri01merr 


THE  OPEN  SHOP  AND 
INDUSTRIAL  LIBERTY 


The  “Closed  Shop”  is  a system  prevailing  in 
factories  conducted  under  a fixed  rule  that 
none  but  union  men  in  good  standing  shall 
be  employed.*  It  is  dubbed  the  “Closed  Shop” 
because  its  doors  are  barred  against  all  employees 
whom  the  union  does  not  recognize,  and  it  is 
contrasted  with  the  “Open  Shop”  where  both 
union  and  non-union  men  are  employed  without 
discrimination  against  either.  The  non-union 
man  may  be  denied  union  membership;  he 
may  have  been  suspended  or  expelled;  or  he 
may  not  desire  membership;  but,  in  any  one  of 
these  three  contingencies,  the  fact  and  not  the 
reason  that  he  is  non-union  is  the  conclusive 
disqualification  against  employment  in  a Closed 
Shop.  As  the  employer  cannot  review  the 
union’s  adjudication  that  a man  is  non-union, 
and  as  in  most  unions,  like  all  secret  societies,  an 
applicant  for  membership  must  be  approved  or 
voted  in,  and  no.  Court  or  any  other  authority 
can  review  the  organization’s  action  in  rejecting 
the  applicant,  the  result  is  that  no  man  can 
secure  employment  in  a “Closed  Shop”  except 
by  consent  of  the  union. 


(*  NOTE:  The  name  “ closed  shop”  would,  as 

appropriately  describe  a shop  where  the  employer 
denies  employment  to  union  men  and  perhaps  it  is 
unfortunate  that  it  has  not  been  so  used.) 


<sP 


DEFINITION 


Page  Three 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


QUESTION  OF 
PRINCIPLE 


TRUE 

OPEN  SHOP 


The  demand  for  the  Closed  Shop  by  the  great 
majority  of  labor  organizations,  and  the  devices 
and  combinations  adopted  to  compel  employers 
to  submit  to  it,  together  with  its  fundamental 
antagonism  to  our  traditional  principles  and 
liberties,  make  it  a question  difficult  to  com- 
promise or  adjust.  In  many  instances,  unions 
and  employers  that  are  willing  to  arbitrate  all 
other  questions  are  kept  from  agreement  because 
they  regard  this  as  a matter  of  principle  and  not 
for  compromise.  The  union  says  it  cannot 
perform  its  functions  without  insisting  upon 
the  Closed  Shop,  and  the  employer  says  every 
capable  man  is  entitled  to  equal  opportunities 
in  seeking  employment,  whether  he  is  a Catholic 
or  Protestant,  a union  man  or  non-union  man. 
The  issue  is  the  cause  of  so  many  of  our  strikes 
— in  some  years  over  a third — and  the  pro- 
longation of  so  many  more  that  it  is  worthy  of 
thorough  attention. 

Under  the  institutions  of  liberty  where 
each  man  decides  for  himself  whether  he  will 
join  a labor  union,  we  have  the  ideal  of  the 
Open  Shop,  the  open  trade  and  the  open  door. 
Where  each  man  is  left  free  to  decide  matters 
for  himself,  it  may  happen  that  all  the  men  in  a 
factory  may  become  union  men  or  it  may  happen 
that  all  the  men  in  a factory  will  remain  non- 
union men;  but  still  it  is  an  Open  Shop  and  an 
open  trade,  for  at  any  time  the  non-union  man 


Page  Four 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


may  join  the  union  without  disturbing  his  job, 
and  the  union  man  may  drop  the  union  without 
losing  his  job. 


That  is  the  only  kind  of  Open  Shop  which 
has  public  indorsement.  The  factories  and 
trades  throughout  our  land  must  be  open  to 
the  youth  of  the  land,  regardless  of  union 
membership,  and  no  monopolistic  or  tyrannical 
combination  of  employers  or  employees  should  be 
permitted  to  interfere.  Presented  in  this  way, 
we  have  before  us  the  ever  recurring  cause  of 
freedom  against  tyranny.  To  take  issue  against 
such  a principle  one  must  be  prepared  to  main- 
tain that  liberty  in  industry  should  be  tossed 
into  the  scrap  heap.  There  are  employers  who 
believe  in  excluding  union  men  and  union 
leaders  who  believe  in  excluding  non-union  men, 
but  the  American  Public  is  against  them  both 
and  is  prepared  to  stand  upon  the  platform  of 
non-discrimination,  regardless  of  the  sensi- 
bilities or  interests  of  organized  employers  or 
organized  labor  and  to  let  the  chips  fly  where 
they  may.  It  may  even  be  prepared  to  say  that 
all  industrial  warfare  in  violation  of  this 
principle  is  war  on  human  liberty,  and  that 
economic  pressure  against  those  who  violate 
this  principle  is  justifiable. 

The  true  Open  Shop  does  not  deny  any  right, 
theory  or  regime  in  industry  except  the  right 
to  exclude  others.  The  right  to  organize  and 


PUBLIC 

OPINION 

OPPOSES 

DISCRIMINA- 

TION 


OPEN  SHOP 
NOT  IN  CON- 
FLICT WITH 
LIBERAL 
POLICIES 


Page  Five 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


the  right  to  strike,  the  right  of  employees’  re- 
presentation, Industrial  Democracy,  collective 
bargaining,  and  union  recognition  can  live  and 
grow  and  fructify  in  the  real  Open  Shop. 
In  discussing  this  fundamental  question  we 
are  not  interested  in  the  fact  that  some  em- 
ployers have  distorted  or  abused  the  real  Open 
Shop,  any  more  than  we  are  interested  in  the 
fact  that  some  Closed  Shop  programs  have 
ended  with  dynamiting  and  murder  in  Los 
Angeles.  Taking  it  by  and  large,  the  question 
is — Shall  the  United  States  remain  an  Open 
Shop  nation  or  shall  it  become  a Closed  Shop 
nation  like  England  and  change  its  laws  and 
Constitution  to  that  end  ? 


EMINENT  MEN 
ADVOCATE 
OPEN  SHOP 


Opposition  to  the  Closed  Shop  does  not  neces- 
sarily involve  opposition  to  Unions.  Advocacy 
of  the  Open  Shop  does  not  involve  a desire  to 
injure  unions.  Such  leaders  as  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  William  H.  Taft  and  Woodrow 
Wilson  are  advocates  of  the  Open  Shop  and 
thorough  believers  in  unions.  In  the  same 
group  are  the  Farmers’  Grange  and  many  church 
movements.  Warren  S.  Stone,  speaking  as 
President  of  the  American  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers,  one  of  the  foremost  of 
our  American  unions,  says: 


Page  Six 


“I  do  not  believe  in  forcing  a. man  to  join  a 
union.  If  he  wants  to  join,  all  right.  But  it  is 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


contrary  to  the  principles  of  free  government 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
try  to  make  him  join.  We  of  the  Engineers 
work  willingly  side  by  side  with  other  engineers 
every  day  who  do  not  belong  to  our  union, 
though  they  enjoy  without  any  objection  on 
our  part  the  advantages  which  we  have  obtained. 

Some  of  them  we  would  not  have  in  the 
union ; others  we  can  not  get.  What  I say  is,  make 
the  unions  so  good  that  they  will  want  to  join.” 

There  are  about  a dozen  unions,  including 
the  four  Railway  Brotherhoods,  which  take 
this  position.  Believers  in  the  Open  Shop  are 
not  confined  to  one  group  or  class  but  include 
many  whose  fairness  and  impartiality  can 
hardly  be  challenged.  The  Open  Shop  germ 
cannot  be  isolated.  No  quarantine  can  confine 
it  to  employers.  The  American  instinct  resents 
discrimination  and  undue  limitations  on  the 
opportunities  and  obligations  of  individual 
self-reliance  or  individual  liberty. 

Closed  Shop  arrangements  and  anti-union  ANTI- 
arrangements  are  of  the  same  character  and  UNIONISM 
sometimes  go  to  great  extremes.  Contracts 
between  an  employer  and  his  employees  some- 
times close  the  door  to  all  union  men.  Employers 
who  have  no  sense  of  humor  call  such  a contract 
an  “Independent  Employee  Contract,”  even 
when  containing  such  a clause  as  this: 


Page  Seven 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


OPEN  SHOP 
MASQUERA- 
DERS 


“That  during  his  employment  said  employee 
will  not  become  a member  of  any  labor  union 
and  will  have  no  dealings,  communications  or 
interviews  with  the  officers,  agents  or  members 
of  any  labor  union  in  relation  to  membership 
by  such  employee  in  a labor  union  or  in  relation 
to  the  employment  of  such  employee.” 

Under  the  terms  of  this  agreement  an  employee 
in  order  to  secure  a job  agrees  to  speak  to  no 
union  man  or  woman,  whether  it  be  his  wife, 
brother,  sister,  father  or  mother,  concerning 
his  conditions  of  employment  or  union  member- 
ship. Here  is  a drastic  ban  on  free  speech  and 
education  and  contact  with  union  men  and 
women.  It  is  enforced  by  the  penalty  of  dis- 
charge. That  kind  of  a Closed  Shop  is 
thoroughly  detestable  and  thoroughly  destruc- 
tive of  human  liberty.  The  American  people 
will  not  tolerate  it. 

The  greatest  enemies  of  the  Open  Shop  are 
those  who  masquerade  under  that  broad  and 
tolerant  slogan  when,  in  fact,  they  actively 
pursue  an  anti-union  policy  by  discriminating 
against  union  men.  Hundreds  of  employers  are 
thus  dragging  the  Open  Shop  through  the  mire 
and  are  holding  it  up  to  distrust  and  suspicion 
before  the  public.  The  real  Open  Shop  will 
never  be  in  danger  except  in  the  hands  of  this 
group  who  preach  what  they  do  not  practice 


Page  Eight 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


and  create  an  atmosphere  of  distrust  for  which 
all  employers  are  held  responsible. 

Then  there  is  the  other  side  of  the  picture. 
We  have  witnessed  here  how  the  employer 
proposes  to  keep  the  non-union  men  from 
contact  with  union  men.  Let  us  see  how  the 
unions  propose  to  keep  union  men  from  contact 
with  non-union  men.  In  1920  we  discovered 
that  every  man  connected  with  the  Longshore- 
men’s or  Teamsters’  Union  in  New  York  City 
was  ordered  not  to  work  with  non-union  men, 
not  to  receive  merchandise  from  non-union 
men,  not  to  deliver  merchandise  to  non-union 
men,  and  not  to  handle  or  transfer  merchandise 
made  by  non-union  men.  We  know  it  has  been 
a common  incident  in  the  history  of  trade  union- 
ism to  forbid  members  from  purchasing  goods 
which  were  made  by  non-union  men,  and  in 
some  cases  union  men  are  forbidden  to  work  on 
non-union  buildings  or  to  produce  goods  for 
non-union  men  to  work  upon.  The  penalty  for 
violating  these  rules  may  be  a heavy  fine  or 
expulsion,  and  expulsion  under  the  Closed  Shop 
system  makes  a man  an  outlaw  in  his  trade. 

These  policies  of  antagonism  and  conflict  are 
the  causes  of  hate  and  suffering  as  between 
man  and  man.  They  signify  that  men’s  minds 
are  not  entirely  occupied  with  the  pursuit  of 
their  own  occupation  but  with  the  means  of 
obstructing  the  employment  of  others,  and  they 


UNION 

DISCRIMINA- 

TION 


MUTUAL 
RENUNCIA- 
TION NEEDED 


Page  Nine 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


destroy  that  spirit  of  co-operation  and  team- 
work without  which  the  nation  must  perish. 
Discrimination  on  one  side  begets,  if  it  does  not 
justify,  discrimination  on  the  other,  just  as 
the  use  of  poisonous  gas  by  one  enemy  provokes, 
if  it  does  not  justify,  the  use  of  poisonous  gas 
in  defense.  To  fight  fire  with  fire  has  a human 
appeal.  To  give  a man  or  an  institution  a little 
of  its  own  medicine  is  not  an  unpopular  thought. 
The  only  cure  is  a mutual  renunciation  by 
both  sides  of  such  objectionable  methods  and 
the  shaping  of  our  laws  in  such  a way  that 
they  who  respect  the  liberties  of  others  shall 
have  advantages  under  the  law  as  against 
those  who  assail  the  liberties  of  others.  Our 
faith  can  find  no  abiding  place  in  any  doctrine 
of  obstruction,  interference  or  exclusion. 


UNION 

CONSCRIPTION 


If  the  Closed  Shop  and  anti-union  cam- 
paigns continue,  each  striving  to  destroy 
the  rights  of  others,  the  Open  Shop  ideal  will 
fall  between  them  and  there  will  be  two  servile 
classes  of  workers — one  which  cannot  join  a 
union  and  another  which  must  join  a union, 
and  both  will  be  shorn  of  their  liberty  of  action. 
We  should  turn  our  attention  to  some  device 
which  will  put  an  end  to  all  of  this  on  both  sides. 

Opposition  to  the  Closed  Shop  does  not  run 
against  the  normal  growth  of  unions,  but 
against  a system  of  union  conscription  which 
by  strikes  or  boycotts  or  other  kind  of  industrial 


Page  Ten 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


warfare,  seeks  the  organized  exclusion  from 
industry  of  all  unorganized  workers.  Such  a 
compulsory  Closed  Shop  system  spells  lockstep 
and  involuntary  servitude.  It  means  ordering 
men  to  work  when  the  strike  is  unofficial  and 
ordering  them  to  quit  work  when  it  is  official. 
If  the  opportunities  to  learn  and  earn  in  industry 
are  controlled  by  any  private  combination, 
that  combination  will  exercise  the  power  of 
compulsory  work,  compulsory  idleness  and 
control  of  the  political  action  of  union  mem- 
bers. In  some  instances,  it  has  already  meant 
this. 

A Closed  Shop  voluntarily  established 
in  a single  factory  is  innocent  enough,  for 
in  that  single  factory  the  opportunities 
of  the  union  arbitrarily  to  exclude  a 
workman  from  employment  are  no  more 
likely  to  be  exercised  unfairly  than  the 
opportunities  of  the  employer  to  so  discriminate. 
Such  union  agreements  may  be  one  of  many 
various  plans  and  devices  which  work  well  in 
some  factories.  Let  us  have  no  bigoted  or 
intolerant  attitude  toward  them  in  such  circum- 
stances. Up  to  that  point  no  great  political 
principle  is  challenged  by  the  Closed  Shop 
because  there  is  no  monopoly.  The  workman 
who  is  excluded  from  employment  in  one  factory 
because  he  cannot  or  will  not  qualify  as  a 
member  of  a union,  may  apply  for  membership 


MONOPLY  AND 
COMPULSION 
THE  REAL 
EVILS 


Page  Eleven 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


CLOSED  SHOP 
MONOPOLY 


at  the  same  trade  in  other  factories  where  such 
restrictions  do  not  apply.  The  workman  who  is 
excluded  from  a closed  non-union  shop  because 
of  his  union  membership  may  ply  his  trade 
elsewhere.  The  employer  with  whom  a union 
breaks  its  agreement  or  who  is  otherwise  mis- 
treated by  the  union,  may  thereafter  run  a 
non-union  or  Open  Shop.  Where  the  Closed 
Shop  agreement  is  voluntary  and  does  not 
extend  to  the  entire  industry,  there  is  always 
an  alternative  for  the  employer  or  worker 
against  whom  the  union  has  turned  its  face. 
Generally  speaking,  that  is  the  existing  status  in 
the  country  today. 

The  realities  of  the  Closed  Shop  program  in 
this  country  involve  both  the  evils  of  monopoly 
and  compulsion. 

Let  us  deal  with  the  monopoly  feature. 
Organized  Labor  demands  that  all  employees 
of  all  industries  shall  be  members  of  their 
respective  unions  and  that  all  industry  shall 
function  through  those  unions  so  far  as  labor 
questions  are  concerned,  and  it  visits  a judgment 
of  moral  condemnation  on  all  who  do  not  agree 
with  it.  In  its  bigotry7  and  intolerance  it  says 
Labor  must  be  saved  its  way  or  not  saved  at 
all.  It  makes  a fetish  of  its  organization  and 
its  plan.  American  instincts  are  against  any 
such  national  Closed  Shop  scheme  because  it 
does  not  keep  open  the  doors  of  opportunity 


Page  Twelve 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


to  all  classes  of  qualified  workers  and  because 
it  involves  a fundamental  conflict  with  our 
political  faith  and  ideals.  A commercial 
nation  which  in  peaceful  times  cannot  pro- 
tect the  right  of  men  to  pursue  their  trade 
without  encountering  artificial  obstructions  from 
private  combinations  lamentably  fails  in  one 
of  the  fundamental  duties  of  government. 
Liberty-loving  instincts  will  not  vest  any 
labor  union  or  corporation  with  the  power  to 
say  that  workmen  of  any  particular  craft 
should  not  be  allowed  to  pursue  their  trade — 
which  is  their  capital  in  life — in  any  part  of 
the  vast  confines  of  the  United  States,  unless 
accepted  as  members  of  a private  society. 

The  difference  between  a universal  Closed 
Shop  system,  which  is  the  monopoly  that  labor 
unions  seek,  and  a partial  and  occasional  Closed 
Shop  system  such  as  we  have  experienced, 
is  of  the  very  essence.  It  is  the  difference 
between  controlling  the  opportunities  to  work 
of  some  employees  and  controlling  the  opportu- 
nities of  all  employees.  Because  one  is  unop- 
posed to  unions  and  union  agreements,  it  does 
not  mean  approval  of  the  idea  that  an  entire 
industry  should  be  monopolized  and  dominated 
by  any  single  union.  Because  one  believes  in 
corporations,  it  does  not  follow  that  one  believes 
an  entire  industry  should  be  dominated  by  a 
single  corporation.  In  such  domination  and 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


COMPULSORY 
CLOSED  SHOP 


monopoly,  by  either  Capital  or  Labor,  lie  the 
real  temptations  to  tyrannize.  If  the  employers 
of  this  country  or  of  any  industry  should  unite 
against  the  employment  of  union  men,  the 
country  would  rise  in  protest.  Because  the 
unions  are  engaged  in  a crusade  against  the 
employment  of  non-unionists,  the  country  has 
risen  in  protest. 

But  the  realities  of  the  situation  are  worse 
than  this.  The  Closed  Shop  program  involves 
not  only  monopoly  but  monopoly  by  compul- 
sion. The  unions  reserve  the  right  to  engage 
in  strikes  and  boycotts,  direct  or  sympathetic, 
primary  or  secondary,  on  public  utilities  or  in 
private  industry,  regardless  of  injury  to  public 
or  private  rights,  in  order  to  prevent  the  employ- 
ment of  any  non-union  man  or  the  transporta- 
tion, sale  and  distribution  of  merchandise 
produced  by  any  non-union  man.  In  further- 
ance of  this  policy,  unions  have  for  years  been 
endeavoring  to  secure  legislation  which  would 
leave  the  employer  and  the  independent.* work- 
ingman, and  society  itself,  naked  and  defence- 
less against  this  program  of  economic  militancy 
as  long  as  it  does  not  involve  a breach  of  the 
peace.  Whenever  any  statute,  court  decision 
or  decree  infringes  upon  the  right  to  use 
economic  power  in  this  way,  there  is  always 
the  outcry  of  resentment,  if  not  defiance,  from 
the  headquarters  of  the  American  Federation 


Page  Fourteen 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


of  Labor.  It  believes  it  should  have  the  right 
to  call  strikes  against  the  transportation  of 
Open  Shop  goods ; to  organize  boycotts 
against  wholesale  or  retail  merchants  who  give 
the  consumer  an  opportunity  to  purchase 
Open  Shop  goods;  to  call  strikes  on  all  buildings 
where  non-union  men  are  employed  or  Open 
Shop  material  or  equipment  is  used,  etc.,  etc. 
In  other  words,  it  asserts  that  the  entire  eco- 
nomic power  of  these  organizations  may  be 
directed  to  prevent  any  non-union  man  from 
pursuing  his  trade.  Such  a demand  takes  little 
account  of  our  doctrines  of  individual  rights  and 
shows  no  regard  for  those  citizens  who  are  not  eli- 
gible to  union  membership  or  who  for  one  rea- 
son or  another  do  not  belong  to  any  labor  union. 

Individual  human  beings  who  are  not  in 
line  for  membership  in  any  union  are  not  to 
be  forgotten.  The  world  of  political  progress 
has  had  its  eyes  on  such  minorities  for  over  a 
century.  According  to  our  basic  political  ideas, 
the  dissenting  individual  must  be  protected 
against  tyranny.  We  have  been  taught  to 
believe  that  it  is  better  that  one  hundred  guilty 
men  escape  than  that  one  innocent  man  suffer. 
We  exalt  the  individual  above  a class.  If  the 
group  is  exalted  above  the  individual  there  can 
be  no  such  thing  as  protection  against  tyranny, 
for  tyranny  emanates  as  frequently  from  a group 
or  class  as  from  a state  or  from  a sovereign. 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


THE  ISSUE 


<!  The  issue,  therefore,  before  this  country,  is 
not  the  question  of  a partial  Closed  Shop  or  a 
voluntary  Closed  Shop  system,  but  a national 
Closed  Shop  system  maintained  by  conscription 
which,  like  some  collossal  reaper,  would  mow 
down  the  rights  of  others.  It  means  closing 
the  doors  of  industry  to  all  but  union  men  and 
closing  transportation  and  the  markets  of  the 
nation  to  all  but  union  goods.  It  means  that 
the  great  consuming  public,  deprived  of  its 
right  of  commercial  suffrage,  must  starve  or 
buy  its  sustenance  and  raiment  from  a self- 
sustained  monopoly,  artificially  protected  from 
the  forces  of  moral  or  legal  restraint.  It  means 
the  substantial  abandonment  of  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  non-union  men  and  all  non-con- 
formists and  dissenters,  and  the  vesting  in  a 
private  society  of  the  power  of  commercial  life 
and  death  over  their  fellow  beings.'1 

The  utterances  of  the  Federation  of  Labor 
show  that  it  suffers  no  illusions  on  this  subject. 
Mr.  John  Mitchell  writes  that  the  time  will 
come  when  compulsory  union  membership  will 
be  no  more  of  a grievance  than  compulsory 
attendance  at  school.  “The  inalienable  right 
of  a man  to  work”,  he  says,  “will  then  be  on  a 
par  with  the  inalienable  right  of  a child  to 
play  truant  and  the  compulsion  exercised  by 
the  trade  union  will  be  likened  to  that  of  the 
state  which,  in  the  interest  of  society,  forces  an 


Page  Sixteen 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


education  upon  the  child.”  etc.  The  union 
leaders  thus  recognize  that  their  Closed  Shop 
demands  are  demands  for  sovereign  power  such 
as  is  exercised  by  the  State.  The  Typographical 
Union  carries  this  a step  further  and  requires 
each  member  to  promise  that  his  fidelity  to 
the  union  shall  be  above  “any  allegiance  that 
I may  now  or  hereafter  owe  to  any  other 
organization,  social,  political  or  religious,  secret 
or  otherwise.”  Mr.  Gompers  places  union 
loyalty  above  all  questions  of  right  or  wrong, 
and  says  the  proper  motto  should  be,  “May  my 
union  always  be  right,  but,  whether  right  or 
wrong,  my  union.”  He  treats  this  issue  as  the 
irrepressible  conflict  and  says:  “As  the  im- 

mortal Lincoln  said,  ‘This  country  cannot  long 
remain  half  free  and  half  slave,’  so  say  we, 
that  any  establishment  cannot  long  remain  or 
be  successfully  operated  part  union  and  part 
non-union.” 

What  is  the  fundamental  nature  of  these 
organizations  which  demand  the  right  to  wield 
this  sovereign  power?  They  are  not  public 
organizations;  they  are  not  open  to  all  classes 
of  citizens;  or  to  all  the  members  of  an  eligible 
class;  their  rules  and  regulations  controlling 
the  admission  and  expulsion  of  members  are 
not  subject  to  legal  review.  Outsiders  have  no 
claim  upon  them  and  they  have  no  responsi- 
bility to  outsiders.  In  most  states  they  cannot 


LABOR 
UNIONS 
ARE  PRIVATE 
SOCIETIES 


Page  Seventeen 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


sue  or  be  sued.  They  are  private  societies,  as 
free  to  exclude  or  expel  members  as  any  college 
fraternity.  An  applicant  may  be  denied  member- 
ship or  a member  may  be  expelled,  and  the 
reason  for  such  action  may  be  whim  or  caprice, 
if  the  rules  of  the  order  so  provide.  From  the 
very  nature  of  the  circumstances  there  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  an  Open  union.  Some  exclude 
negroes,  some  women,  some  aliens,  some  apply 
qualifications  of  competency  and  age,  and  many 
have  restrictive  rules  as  to  apprentices.  But 
above  all,  if  a man  or  woman  meets  the  eligibility 
qualifications,  there  is  no  assurance  of  admis- 
sion. Whether  the  union  is  willing  to  admit 
an  eligible  person  as  a member  is  usually  a mat- 
ter to  be  settled  by  vote  in  which  in  some  in- 
stances, a few  adverse  votes  are  declared  to 
constitute  a “blackball.”  In  the  case  of  the 
Carpenters,  there  are  over  1900  locals  and  if 
one  of  these  locals  in  California  fails  to  admit 
a man  by  a two-thirds  vote,  he  cannot  be 
admitted  into  any  of  the  other  locals  on  the 
Atlantic  or  elsewhere.  Large  entrance  fees  are 
imposed  on  those  who  have  been  guilty  of 
scabbing.  Some  unions  see  fit  to  limit  their 


membership,  or  close 
bers,  or  to  impose 
amounting  someth 
have  kept  their 
the  point  of  tra 


doors  to  new  mem- 
° admission  dues 
ther  unions 
cted  below 
I have  con- 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


ducted  a profitable  business  in  selling  licenses  to 
work  to  outsiders.  Others  restrict  apprentices 
and  will  not  let  a man  join  unless  he  begins 
his  apprenticeship  between  the  ages  of  18  and  21. 
But  the  interesting  thing  to  be  remembered  is 
the  tendency  noted  by  all  scholars  who  investi- 
gate this  subject:  when  a union  is  weak,  it 
pursues  a liberal  policy  in  its  effort  to  acquire 
new  members;  when  a union  is  strong  or  is 
attaining  a monopoly,  it  pursues  a restrictive 
policy  and  excludes  new  members.  If,  therefore, 
the  country  were  to  accept  the  national  Closed 
Shop  regime,  there  is  fair  assurance  from  our 
knowledge  of  human  nature  and  from  our 
experience  with  some  strong  unions,  that  there 
would  follow  a monopoly  based  upon  a closed 
shop  with  a closed  union.  Concerning  such 
a monopoly,  Prof.  John  R.  Commons  says: 
“Much  can  be  said  for  a Closed  Shop  if  the 
union  is  open,  but  a Closed  Shop’ with  a closed 
union  cannot  be  defended.” 

Union  membership  is  a precarious  privilege. 
It  may  be  arbitrarily  granted  and  arbitrarily 
withdrawn.  That  is  why  America  is  unwilling 
to  weigh  in  the  same  balance  the  right  of  a 
man  to  work  and  membership  in  a private 
society.  There  is  no  liberty  under  the  law 
when  such  membership  is  a condition  precedent 
to  the  exercise  of  a fundamental  right  of  citizen- 
ship. Men  may  argue  about  it  and  philosophers 


UNION  MEM- 
BERSHIP A PRE- 
CARIOUS PRIV- 
ILEGE 


Page  Nineteen 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


may  write  treatises  on  the  subject,  but  there  is  no 
gainsaying  the  proposition  that  a national 
Closed  Shop  policy  enforced  by  industrial 
warfare  is  incompatible  with  the  principles  of 
liberty.  The  non-union  worker  and  the  majority 
of  union  workers  will  not  consent  that  the 
protection  of  the  right  to  work  and  quit  work 
be  transferred  from  a state  which  has  always 
upheld  it,  to  private  societies  which  have  so 
often  denied  it. 

Industrial  history  is  already  marked  with 
the  pathos  and  heroism  of  strong  characters 
who  have  fought  for  liberty  against  Closed 
Shop  tyranny.  As  the  principles  we  are  discuss- 
ing are  not  academic  but  excessively  practical  in 
their  bearing,  a few  illustrations  should  be  given. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  a steam  fitter  by 
the  name  of  Charles  McQueed  endeavored  to 
join  a union  of  steam  fitters.  He  paid  down 
one  dollar  as  required  and  thereafter  waited 
four  months  for  a reply.  He  then  wrote  a 
letter  but  received  no  answer.  Later  he  met 
Cummings,  the  union  official,  and  when  he 
asked  him  what  the  trouble  was,  Cummings 
replied  that  he  would  have  to  be  proposed  by 
two  members.  This  proposal  was  arranged  for 
and  McQueed  tendered  a certified  check  for 
$50  for  his  dues,  which  was  refused.  One  of 
his  friends  subsequently  put  up  $25  and  told 
him  to  appear  in  about  two  weeks.  He  appeared 


Page  Twenty 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


early  one  evening  and  was  kept  waiting  until 
2.30  in  the  morning.  An  examination  was 
then  held,  after  which  he  was  told  to  retire. 
When  he  finally  returned,  his  membership  was 
rejected.  Up  to  this  time  sixteen  months  had 
elapsed  since  his  original  application. 

McQueed  and  several  others  who  were  similarly 
situated,  formed  a kind  of  protective  association 
and  asked  to  be  affiliated  with  the  Steam  Fitters 
Union  and  recognized  by  it,  but  they  were 
refused.  They  endeavored  to  secure  employ- 
ment on  various  jobs  in  New  York  City,  but 
the  Steam  Fitters  Union,  which  had  jurisdiction 
over  all  territory  within  twenty  miles  of  the 
City  Hall  of  New  York  City,  determined  to 
prevent  their  employment.  McQueed  went  to 
work  on  a building  at  45  th  Street  and  the  owner 
was  told  that  a general  strike  of  all  trades  there 
employed  would  take  place  if  he  was  not  dis- 
charged. He  was  thereupon  discharged.  He 
secured  work  at  Burling  Slip  and  Front  Street, 
but  the  contractor  was  told  by  the  delegate 
to  discharge  him  and,  pointing  to  a group 
of  delegates  of  various  trades  standing  outside, 
he  said:  “The  men  over  there,  representing 

other  societies,  would  call  out  a strike  on  the 
whole  building.”  This  practice  continued  with 
the  entire  backing  of  all  the  building  trades 
unions  in  New  York  City,  and  McQueed  was 
thrown  off  one  job  after  another.  The  Steam 


Page  Twenty -one 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


Fitters’  delegate  openly  stated:  “I  am  ordered 
by  the  board  of  delegates  to  knock  these  men 
off  every  building  I find  them  on.”  He  told 
McQueed:  “I  will  strike  against  your  men 

wherever  I find  them  and  not  allow  them  to 
work  on  any  job  in  the  city  except  some  small 
places.”  The  assistant  delegate,  Doherty, 
said  “he  would  see  that  I would  not  work  in 
his  district  if  he  could  help  it.”  The  entire 
thirty  trades  of  the  building  industry,  repre- 
senting, I dare  say,  75,000  working  people,  were 
united  to  go  on  strike  wherever  these  men 
were  employed.  The  case  became  historical  be- 
cause it  found  its  way  to  court. 

Let  us  look  at  another  illustration,  for  in 
these  human  realities  all  of  the  force  of  argu- 
ment will  be  seen.  Eight  employees  of  the 
Chicago  Railway  Company  brought  suit  for  an 
injunction  against  Division  No.  241  Amalga- 
mated Association  of  Street  and  Electric  Railway 
Employees,  to  restrain  the  union  from  procuring 
their  discharge  by  strike  or  threats  of  strike. 
These  employees  had  joined  the  union,  paying 
their  regular  dues  of  75  i a month,  and  part  of 
the  moneys  were  expended,  against  their  objec- 
tion, in  supporting  a democratic  mayoralty 
campaign,  in  which  the  principal  question  was 
municipal  ownership  of  street  railways.  These 
plaintiffs  thereupon  tendered  their  resignation 
as  members  of  the  union,  to  take  effect  on 


Page  Twenty -two 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


February  1,  1908,  and  the  union  insisted  upon 
their  discharge  by  the  Railway  Company  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  no  longer  union 
members.  The  Railway  Company  offered  to 
arbitrate  the  question,  but  the  union  refused. 
The  strike  was  then  authorized,  and  the  men 
sought,  but  were  denied,  legal  protection. 

This  demonstrates  how  any  substantial  restric- 
tion on  the  freedom  of  a man  to  work  regardless 
of  union  membership,  may  result  in  controlling 
political  action  by  compelling  him  to  support 
financially  a particular  candidate  and  to  vote 
as  the  union  dictates.  It  shows  the  incompata- 
bility  between  the  Closed  Shop  and  the  funda- 
mental rights  of  citizenship.  The  right  of 
union  membership  is  as  uncertain  and  insecure 
before  the  law  as  the  right  to  become  a member 
of  a college  fraternity,  and  if  that  membership 
is  to  be  synonymous  with  the  exercise  of  the 
fundamental  right  of  pursuing  a trade,  then 
indeed  all  liberty  is  imperilled. 

A third  illustration.  The  Boilermakers,  Iron 
Shipbuilders  and  Helpers,  a union  of  about 
85,000  members,  affiliated  with  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  publishes  a record  of 
four  or  five  hundred  expulsions  and  fines  for 
the  period  of  about  a year  ending  December  20, 
1920.  These  expulsions  and  fines  represent  the 
judgments  entered  by  an  organization  against 
fellow  members  and  upon  which  the  rights  of 


Page  Twenty-three 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


those  fellow  members  to  pursue  their  trade 
under  a universal  closed  shop  system  would 
absolutely  depend.  Men  are  fined  for  various 
offenses  from  $5  up  to  $9,999.99.  Men  are 
suspended  or  expelled  for  periods  of  one  year, 
three  years,  five  years,  fifteen  years,  ninety-nine 
years,  and  a lifetime.  About  a sixth  of  the 
total  number  disciplined  receive  life  sentences, 
or  what  unions  call  a capital  sentence,  and 
many  received  a life  sentence  with  a fine  of 
$9,999.99.  This  presents  a typical  problem,  for 
every  union  pursues  some  course  of  discipline, 
calling  for  fines,  suspension  or  expulsion.  Under 
a Closed  Shop  system,  the  men  who  are  sus- 
pended or  expelled  are  condemned  to  be  thrown 
upon  the  country  and,  more  effectively  than  the 
cripples  of  the  Great  War,  are  deprived  of  the 
chance  to  pursue  their  trade.  In  the  face  of  such 
obstacles  to  earning  a living,  how  many  of 
them  would  become  public  charges  and  how 
many  social  derelicts,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  1' 


OPPOSITION 

TO 

RIVAL  UNIONS 


The  organizations  affiliated  with  the  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  not  only  deny  the  right  of  men 
to  remain  unorganized  but  also  deny  their 
right  to  join  organizations  of  their  own  choosing. 
The  Federation  forced  the  members  of  the 
Amalgamated  Woodworkers  International  LTnion 
and  the  members  of  the  Amalgamated  Society 
of  Carpenters  and  Joiners,  important  unions  of 
many  years’  standing,  to  surrender  their  iden- 


Page  Twenty-four  i.  In  the  hearings  before  a legislative  committee  in  New  York  in  the 
early  part  of  1922,  working  men  testified  as  to  their  inability  to  join 
the  plumbers'  union  because  it  was  closed  against  everybody  except 
relatives  of  members.  Another  told  how  he  had  been  expelled  from  anotner  union  with- 
out warrant  because  he  brought  charges  against  Brindell  for  misappropriating  funds, 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


tity  and  unite  with  the  United  Brotherhood  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners  of  America.  When  the 
Federation  had  before  it  the  question  of  the  re- 
lations of  the  International  Association  of  Steam 
and  Hot  Water  Fitters  and  Helpers  to  the 
United  Association  of  Plumbers,  Gas  Fitters, 

Steam  Fitters  and  Steam  Fitters’  Helpers, 
it  voted  down  a resolution  to  hold  a plebiscite 
of  men  engaged  in  the  steam  fitting  trade  to 
determine  for  themselves  their  future  form  of 
organization.  By  its  own  order  it  signed  the 
death  warrant  of  the  International  Association 
and  forced  it  to  lose  itself  in  the  United 
Association.  In  true  autocratic  fashion,  these 
men  dictate  how  workers  shall  organize.  They 
attack  the  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers  and 
do  not  admit  its  right  to  exist.  They  have 
driven  the  I.  W.  W.  from  jobs.  They  attack 
every  form  of  factory  organization  which 
does  not  function  through  their  union,  regardless 
of  how  well  the  men  may  be  served  by  it. 

What  would  happen  if  a body  of  bricklayers  or 
carpenters  should  desire  to  form  a new  organi- 
zation of  their  own  and  ply  their  trade  in  New 
York  City?  Sanctas  Simplicitas!  That  in- 
dependence of  spirit  and  action  which  the  Fed- 
eration would  keep  alive  in  some  respects  must 
not  assert  itself  internally.  “Stamp  out 
secession”  — “Secession  in  the  labor  movement 
must  be  effectually  crushed”  — That  is  the 

Page  Twenty-five 

with  the  result  that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the  country  in  order  to  secure  work.  Mr. 

Gompers  asserted  that  expulsion  from  unions  in  well  organized  trades  was  comparable  to 

“ capital  punishment " , but  insisted  that  the  correction  of  such  abuses  must  be  left  to  the 

unions  and  not  turned  over  to  the  courts 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


INDIVIDUAL 

RIGHTS 


answer  to  any  group  of  workers  who  try  to  form 
a new  union  of  their  own  choosing.  The  union 
theory  seems  to  be  that  there  are  no  rights  to 
organize  or  remain  unorganized  except  within 
the  ranks  of  the  particular  union  and  that  the 
workmen  must  not  be  allowed  to  enjoy  any 
benefits  except  those  received  through  such 
unions.  It  is  a monopoly  against  the  unorganized 
and  all  rival  organizations.  Would  it  not  be 
better  if  there  were  many  rival  unions,  including 
factory  organizations,  so  that  the  urge  toward 
collective  bargaining  would  not  become  compli- 
cated with  this  question  of  monopoly  and  a 
denial  of  the  rights  of  others? 

The  right  to  organize  must  not  overthrow 
the  right  to  remain  unorganized.  One  may 
venture  to  believe  in  voluntary  associations 
without  giving  approval  to  involuntary  associa- 
tions. The  rights  of  the  group,  the  mob  or 
the  class  must  not  destroy  the  rights  of  the 
individual.  “Our  fundamental  law  recognizes 
no  class,  no  group,  no  section,”  says  Mr.  Hard- 
ing, “Ours  is  a government  of  individuals.” 
We  all  believe  in  collectivism  as  an  agency  of 
co-operation,  but  collective  self  help  must  not 
unduly  infringe  upon  that  ancient  and  more 
important  right  of  individual  self  help.  Indi- 
vidual self  reliance  is  of  far  more  importance 
to  a nation  than  reliance  upon  the  collective 
power  of  a class.  It  is  the  individual  human 


Page  Twenty -six 


V;  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


leing  whom  we  cherish.  God  made  him  a 
of  responsibility  and  no  earthly  power 
:hange  that  immutable  fact.  He  must 
rily  look  to  himself  and  his  own  talents 
t<  -k  out  his  career.  The  destiny  of  the 
at  lal  is  above  the  destiny  of  any  group 
or  His  character,  initiative  and  service 

are  ; illars  of  our  republic.  So  far  as  collect- 
ivism promotes  the  development  of  individuals, 
it  is  goc  ut  so  far  as  it  obstructs  such  develop- 
ment, it  is  bad.  The  aim  of  modern  life  must 
be  to  work  t an  adjustment  between  individu- 
alism and  ectivism,  but  the  solution  when 
reached  mu  at  be  unmindful  of  the  fact  that 
the  organizat  of  groups  as  well  as  the  organi- 
zation of  the  e,  is  but  a means  of  securing 
the  best  life  io\  individuals. 

A compulsory  C sed  Shop  system  confiscates  DOCTRINES  OF 
liberty  and  des  :roT  inaividualism  just  as  social-  CONFISCA- 
ism  appropriates  p.'vate  property  and  destroys  TION 
individualism.  no  individual  should  be  forced 
to  sell  his  birthrigh  :>  to  any  class  for  a mess  of 
pottage.  Lock-step  is  , bad.  We  are  learning 
that  servitude  to  a class  or  any  private  institut- 
ion may  become  as  great  a tyranny  as  servitude 
to  a state.  It  shouh  not  lie  in  the  power  of  any 
group  of  men  to  ma  :e  a commercial  leper  of 
any  American  citizen.  \merican  citizenship, 
like  the  Roman  citizenship  earlier  centuries, 
must  always  carry  c , n assurances,  and 


Page  Twenty-seven 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


among  them  are  freedom  to  worship  God  a 
freedom  to  work,  which  are  the  basic  resour  _cs 
of  human  existence.  From  the  rich  her  age 
of  the  past,  no  less  than  this  must  be  retai  rd, 
if  the  sovereignty  and  dignity  of  the  f an 
being  is  to  be  preserved. 


INVOLUNTARY 

SERVITUDE 


Whatever  else  we  do,  let  us  shun  yranny, 
cling  to  liberty,  and  strive  to  keep  the  doors 
of  opportunity  open  for  the  develop  .t  of  all 
classes  of  human  beings,  even  the  they  be 
at  times  industrial  dissenters  i noncon- 
formists. That  is  the  issue  of  he  real  Open 
Shop.  If  we  protect  freedom  chis  way,  we 
shall  have  co-operative  collect1  vism  but  not 
coercive  collectivism. 

/No  state  can  tell  a workman  when  and  where 
he  shall  work  or  not  work.  T hat  is  involuntary 
servitude  and  a condition  a gainst  which  he  is 
protected  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  By  what  warrant,  then,  can  we  place 
such  power  in  the  hands  of  private  societies 
which  deny  the  right  c law  or  government 
to  review  their  affairs  c to  define  their  duties 
and  obligations?  By  nat  token  of  human 
nature  can  people  be! ; e that  such  unlimited 
power  over  the  li'  of  individuals  will  be 
exercised  by  those  c anizations  with  modera- 
tion and  restraint’'  le  entire  course  of  human 
history  is  to  the  c m ary,  and  the  short  history  of 
American  Unionise  does  not  modify  the  record. 


Page  Twenty-eight 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


History  has  many  times  taught  us  that  TYRANNY 
tyranny  rests  no  more  in  the  will  of  a monarch 
than  in  the  uncontrolled  spirit  of  a mob.  In 
mediaeval  times,  when  guilds  controlled  the 
right  to  work  at  given  crafts,  interlopers  were 
burned  at  the  stake,  sent  to  the  galleys, 
and  had  their  establishments  broken  up  by 
force.  The  theory  of  our  government  is  to  avoid 
all  tyranny  and  despotism  from  any  source, 
even  though  it  be  the  majority  vote  of  the 
citizens  of  our  country,  by  protecting  under  our 
constitution  certain  individual  rights  which, 
while  that  constitution  exists,  cannot  be  en- 
croached upon  by  government  itself,  to 
say  nothing  of  combinations  of  private  indi- 
viduals. Among  those  rights  none  is  more 
important  than  that  of  earning  a living;  and 
any  combination  of  people  attempting  to  wrest 
that  right  from  all  citizens  and  bestow  it  upon 
a favored  class  aims  at  the  very  genius  of  our 
free  institutions.  It  is  difficult  to  improve 
on  the  language  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  as  follows: 

“Monopolies  are  the  bane  of  our  body 
politic  at  the  present  day.  In  the  eager 
pursuit  of  gain  they  are  sought  in  every 
connection.  They  exhibit  themselves 
in  corners  in  the  stock  market  and  pro- 
duce market  and  in  many  other  ways. 

If,  by  legislative  enactment,  they  can  be 
carried  into  the  common  avocations 


Page  Twenty-nine 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


and  callings  of  life,  so  as  to  cut  off  the 
right  of  the  citizen  to  choose  his  avoca- 
tion— the  right  to  earn  his  bread  by 
the  trade  which  he  has  learned — and  if 
there  is  no  constitutional  means  of 
putting  a check  to  such  enormity,  I can 
only  say  that  it  is  time  that  that  consti- 
tution was  still  further  amended.” 

And  again  the  same  tribunal  says: — 
“The  very  idea  that  one  man  may  be 
compelled  to  hold  his  life  or  the  means 
of  living,  or  any  material  right  essential 
to  the  enjoyment  of  life,  at  the  mere 
will  of  another,  seems  to  be  intolerable 
in  any  country  where  freedom  prevails, 
as  being  the  essence  of  slavery  itself.” 


NO  CHECK  ON 
MISCONDUCT 


One  does  not  like  to  dogmatize  about  the 
Closed  Shop,  but  it  has  become  a profound 
conviction  with  many  people  that  a national 
Closed  Shop  system  for  which  the  unions  now 
reach  out  would  be  a menace  alike  to  economic 
and  political  safety.  In  forcing  itself  upon  us 
by  strikes,  boycotts  and  social  ostracism,  to 
say  nothing  of  more  violent  methods,  it  em- 
bodies more  than  the  traditional  evils  of 
monopoly.  The  Closed  Shop  as  it  may  grow 
naturally  and  voluntarily  is  quite  a different 
thing  from  this  realistic  picture  of  the  compul- 
sory Closed  Shop,  which  aims  artificially  to 
protect  the  labor  movement  from  all  wholesome 
rivalry  and  to  remove  it  beyond  the  natural 
or  social  laws  of  reward  and  punishment,  and 
moral  and  legal  restraint.  The  fundamental 


Page  Thirty 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


incentives  for  good  conduct  are  to  be  removed. 
It  seeks  the  establishment  of  a single  national 
union  for  each  industry  which  the  government 
shall  leave  unregulated  and  uncontrolled  and 
then  demands  that  society  and  employers 
must  recognize  and  deal  with  that  union  regard- 
less of  the  contracts  it  flouts,  and  the  injury  it 
inflicts  and  regardless  of  the  stupidity  or  selfish- 
ness of  the  management.  The  good  and  bad 
unions  fare  alike.  Upon  the  rest  of  us  the 
laws  of  nature  and  society  pass  judgment,  and 
the  judgment  on  our  mistakes  is  loss  or  punish- 
ment, but  organized  labor  is  to  hold  its  position 
by  force  rather  than  service.  Reputation, 
honor  and  intelligence  will  count  for  naught. 

Why  talk  of  collective  bargaining  under  such 
circumstances?  There  is  no  bargaining  with 
monopoly.  It  is  “take  it  or  leave  it.”  That  has 
too  often  been  the  attitude  of  the  employer 
in  the  past  and  it  is  well  aped  by  the  Closed 
Shop  protagonist.  A bargain  implies  an  alter- 
native. Your  national  Closed  Shop  regime  implies 
that  the  employer  and  society  must  do  business 
with  certain  unions  regardless  of  their  terms. 

The  Closed  Shop  is  not  new.  It  has  made  a 
record.  All  too  frequently  it  develops  certain 
well-defined  but  unfortunate  tendencies.  Among 
them  are  obstacles  to  efficiency,  opposition  to 
improved  machinery  and  a useless  increase  in 
the  cost  of  production  which  benefits  no  one. 


ECONOMIC 

ASPECTS 


Page  Thirty-one 


CLOSED  SHOP 
IN  ENGLAND 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


It  is  futile  to  deny  this.  A prominent  English 
manufacturer  refers  to  it  as  a union  crime 
which  deprives  laborers  of  a great  unearned 
dividend  which  would  be  theirs  if  they  operated 
efficiently.  That  economic  heresy  alone,  if  it 
continues,  will  inflict  a mortal  wound  on  any 
labor  union  or  community  which  tolerates  it. 

Because  of  this  condition,  industry  often 
withers  where  the  Closed  Shop  flourishes,  and 
the  cities  of  the  Open  Shop  leap  forward  with 
vigor  and  prosperity,  while  cities  of  the  Closed 
Shop  lose  their  vitality.  Los  Angeles  out- 
distances San  Francisco  although  the  latter 
had  a big  start  and  an  immediate  port.  The 
growth  of  Detroit  has  been  one  of  the  wonders 
of  our  commercial  advance  and  is  attributed 
in  part  to  its  Open  Shop  policy.  The  growth  of 
the  hatting  trade  is  not  found  in  Danbury,  of 
union  traditions,  but  in  outside  cities  where  the 
union  practices  are  unknown.  And  the  differ- 
ence is  not  usually  one  of  the  workers’  earnings 
but  in  efficiency. 

And,  just  as  Closed  Shop  cities  fall  by  the 
wayside  in  any  commercial  rivalry,  so  will 
Closed  Shop  nations.  England  before  the  War 
was  fast  becoming  a sacrifice  to  the  demon- 
stration of  this  truth.  It  is  the  most  highly 
organized  of  all  the  great  commercial  nations 
and  therefore  affords  the  best  proof  of  this 
contention.  A report  of  our  Department  of 


Page  Thirty-two 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


Labor  shows  that  the  unions  in  Great  Britain 
have  opposed  automatic  or  improved  machinery 
and  efficiency  devices  on  the  theory  that  men 
have  a vested  interest  in  the  job  which  must 
not  be  imperilled  by  adopting  improvements. 
Although  before  the  War  English  workers 
received  a third  or  a half  of  what  American 
workers  received,  their  labor  costs  were  greater. 

When  the  War  came  with  its  demands  upon 
British  industries,  everybody  saw  that  the 
Closed  Shop  system  was  wanting,  so  the  famous 
Treasury  Agreement  was  executed  between  the 
Government  and  Organized  Labor  in  which 
the  Closed  Shop  and  union  restrictions  were 
renounced  for  the  period  of  the  War.  Even 
this  did  not  prove  entirely  satisfactory,  for 
Lloyd  George  had  occasion  to  complain  re- 
peatedly to  the  workers  that  the  agreement 
was  not  being  observed  by  them.  He  charged 
the  unions  with  tying  the  hands  of  their  native 
land  while  it  was  fighting  for  its  life.  In 
December,  1915,  he  said: 

“The  next  direction  in  which  trade  union- 
ists can  help  us  is  by  suspending  during  the 
War  all  practices  and  customs  which  have 
the  effect  of  preventing  men  turning  out  as 
much  work  as  their  skill  and  strength  per- 
mit. If  we  had  a suspension  during  the  War 
of  these  customs  which  keep  down  the  out- 
put, we  could  increase  in  some  places  by 
30%,  in  other  places  by  200%.” 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


It  was  arranged  by  the  Treasury  Agreement 
that  the  restrictions  on  efficiency  and  machinery' 
should  be  removed  and  that  the  doors  of  industry 
which  had  been  shut  by  the  Closed  Shop  policy 
should  be  open  to  unskilled  and  female  labor 
to  do  the  work  which  they  were  thoroughly 
capable  of  doing.  It  was  agreed,  however, 
that  all  the  union  restrictions  were  to  be  resumed 
after  the  War  unless  the  unions  consented  to 
their  abandonment.  Thereupon,  all  practices 
and  customs  tending  to  restrict  production  or  the 
employment  of  any  special  class  of  persons 
were  declared  by  law  to  be  suspended,  and  any 
person  who  attempted  to  induce  anyone  to 
comply  with  any  restrictive  law  was  declared 
to  be  guilty  of  a crime. 


EXPERIENCE 
IN  AMERICA 


These  conditions  do  not  generally  exist  in 
this  country  because  it  is  largely  an  Open  Shop 
country.  In  industries  highly  unionized  such 
conditions  do  occasionally  arise,  as  witness  the 
hatting  trade.  Conditions  in  our  unionized 
building  trades  show  that  Closed  Shop  unions 
and  Closed  Shop  employers  are  penalizing  the 
public  by  waste  and  inefficiency.  In  some 
cases,  the  unions  fix  a limit  for  the  amount  of 
work  a workman  may  perform  in  a day.  Among 
the  Bricklayers,  which  is  one  of  the  strongest 
Closed  Shop  unions,  the  cost  of  labor  has 
risen  800%.  The  Closed  Shop  monopoly  in 
the  Building  Trades  has  destroyed  the  morale 


Page  Thirty-four 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


of  Capital  and  Labor.  Both  are  working  together 
with  the  clasped  hands  of  co-operation,  but,  as 
in  the  case  of  monopolies,  their  other  hands 
are  in  the  public  pocket. 

The  Closed  Shop  system  has  brought  chronic 
unemployment  and  underpayment  to  Great 
Britain,  because  of  its  insistence  on  uneconomic 
principles.  We  see  what  it  has  meant  to  some 
of  our  cities  like  San  Francisco.  We  see  what  it 
has  meant  to  some  of  our  industries  like  Build- 
ing, and  all  of  its  defects  and  shortcomings  are 
due  primarily  to  the  inherent  vice  of  a monopo- 
listic system  upon  which  mischief  and  misdeeds 
are  bound  to  thrive.  That  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  any  Closed  Shop  system  which  involves 
monopoly  by  compulsion  and  which  maintains 
itself  by  force  and  not  by  service. 


In  these  times,  no  nation  can  endure  in 
commercial  well  being  without  a large  body  of 
independent  labor,  unorganized,  or  organized 
into  competing  bodies,  which  will  force  unions 
to  compete  by  service  for  public  confidence. 
If  society  is  to  furnish  an  incentive  for  such 
service,  the  cause  of  human  liberty  must  be 
protected  so  that  any  workman  will  not  be 
seriously  impeded  in  the  exercise  of  his  funda- 
mental rights  of  citizenship  merely  because  he 
is  not  a union  man.  It  is  only  when  unionism 
is  subject  in  some  degree  to  the  wholesome 
forces  of  competition  on  the  part  of  these 


SOME  INDE- 
PENDENT 
LABOR 
NECESSARY 


Page  Thirty-five 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


employers  and  employees  who  may  be  abused 
by  it,  that  the  processes  of  moral  restraint  will 
be  operative.  The  right  of  a man  to  a job  must 
rest  on  his  ability  and  not  upon  the  power  of 
his  fraternity. 


MENACE  TO 

POLITICAL 

SAFETY 


A national  Closed  Shop  regime  is  likewise 
a menace  to  our  political  safety  because  it 
means  the  end  of  democratic  government. 
Where  the  control  of  the  opportunities  to  live 
are  centered  in  one  national  organization,  or 
group  of  affiliated  organizations,  that  institution 
will  rule  this  country  and  no  other.  Such  a 
power  would  be  as  considerate  of  the  rights  of 
others  as  the  Imperial  German  Government. 
If  all  the  primary  functions  and  necessities  of 
society  are  unionized,  the  social  questions 
involved  in  their  operation  will  not  be  settled 
by  orderly  political  processes  but  by  the  eco- 
nomic growth  of  the  unions  in  control.  The 
Adamson  Act  proves  that  in  this  country.  The 
manner  in  which  Great  Britain  and  other 
European  countries  have  been  forced  by  threats 
of  strikes  to  consider  many  matters  proves  it 
there.  One  can  multiply  illustrations.  If 
unions  control  the  entire  printing  industry, 
they  may,  as  has  been  done  in  a few  cases, 
place  a censorship  on  printed  matter.  If  your 
complete  unionizaton  spells  a power  stronger 
than  society  itself  that  power  will  not  wait 
to  hear  the  returns  from  the  polls.  Government 


Page  Thirty-six 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


by  strike  will  supersede  government  by  ballot. 
A Closed  Shop  system,  maintained  by  militant 
unionism,  means  the  perversion  of  democratic 
government  and  is,  therefore,  a menace  to  the 
political  as  well  as  to  the  economic  safety  of  the 
country.  Some  of  us  are  old-fashioned  enough 
to  believe  in  a government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people  and  for  the  people  and  not  a govern- 
ment by  strike  or  economic  assault  on  society. 
These  things  may  be  a long  way  off  today,  but 
change  our  laws  as  labor  demands,  to  permit 
the  compulsory  unionization  of  all  employees, 
and  what  we  have  experienced  is  but  a fore- 
taste of  what  will  be. 

Unions  ask  much  of  society  and  offer  no 
hostages  in  return.  They  seek  exemption  from 
all  laws  which  protect  freedom  of  trade  and 
commerce,  which  is  the  open  door  policy  of 
American  industry,  and  when  Congress  passed 
appropriations  for  the  enforcement  of  such 
laws,  have  caused  it  to  be  written  on  the  statute 
books  that  none  of  such  moneys  shall  be  utilized 
against  them;  they  claim  the  right  to  blockade 
the  channels  of  interstate  trade  as  against  any 
merchandise  of  which  they  disapprove;  they 
insist  upon  the  right  to  paralyze  railroad 
transportation  and  bring  suffering  and  distress 
to  millions  of  innocent  people,  and  when  Con- 
gress proposes  to  fix  railroad  wages  by  a fair 
tribunal  and  at  the  same  time  abolish  railroad 


PRIVILEGES 

DEMANDED 


Page  Thirty-seven 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


strikes,  they  hurl  defiance  at  the  elected  repre- 
sentatives of  our  sovereign  people;  they  insist 
upon  the  right  to  unionize  every  coal  mine  in 
the  United  States  and  then  to  freeze  our  people 
by  a national  coal  strike;  and  when  the  State 
of  Kansas  passes  its  Industrial  Court  Act,  in  the 
interest  of  all  classes,  because  the  sick  in  hospitals 
are  suffering,  instead  of  giving  it  a fair  trial 
and  fair  consideration  they  decry  and  defy  it 
and  marshal  their  forces  to  prove  it  a failure; 
they  reserve  the  right  to  engage  in  strikes 
against  the  government,  including  police  strikes, 
which  leave  the  community  a defenseless  prey 
to  lawless  elements,  as  in  Boston,  and  again 
attack  those  who  legislate  against  such  assaults 
upon  public  safety;  they  oppose  a state  constab- 
ulary; they  claim  the  right  to  prevent  rail- 
roads, steamships  and  street  railways  from 
carrying  non-union  men  and  non-union  merchan- 
dise; and  they  have  been  seeking  laws  which 
would  legalize  this.  When  the  recent  decision  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  did  not  suit 
them,  they  declared  that  the  Courts  had  no 
right  to  define  the  rights  of  unions,  and  called 
upon  their  five  million  members  hereafter  to 
resist  all  labor  injunctions.  When  the  Courts  of 
Massachusetts  protected  the  rights  of  members 
of  a rival  union  to  work  as  against  the  interfer- 
ence of  one  of  the  unions  of  the  Federation,  it 
was  declared  that  labor  was  filched  of  its 


Page  Thirty-eight 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


rights — filched  of  its  rights  to  filch  the  rights 
of  others;  they  object  to  any  law  which  will 
bring  the  unions  within  the  reach  of  legal 
process  and  answerable  for  their  misconduct; 
and  then  they  demand  that  all  business  shall 
function  through  recognized  unions  regardless 
of  the  mischief  and  misdoings  of  any  particular 
labor  union,  and  that  the  protection  and  dis- 
position of  the  right  to  work  shall  be  transferred 
from  governmental  authority  to  these  private 
societies.  The  Closed  Shop  would  thus  lodge 
sovereign  power  with  private  societies  and 
remove  the  last  vestige  of  public  control  over 
them. 


Suppose  we  force  all  the  employees  on  the 
railroads,  all  the  miners  of  coal,  all  the  pro- 
ducers and  distributors  of  bread  and  milk  into 
disciplined  labor  unions,  where  the  leaders  may 
marshal  them  out  against  all  society,  under 
penalty  of  being  driven  from  their  trade,  what 
assurance  have  we  that  they  will  not  paralyze 
our  commerce,  freeze  our  hospitals  and  starve 
our  babies?  They  cry  out  against  tyranny  and 
oppression  on  the  part  of  one  group  and 
propose  to  cure  it  by  a greater  tyranny  of  their 
own.  The  frailties  of  human  nature  are  not  a 
monopoly  of  any  class.  Would  they  be  kinder 
and  more  considerate  towards  the  rights  of 
the  rest  of  us  than  our  democratic  state  has 
been  towards  them?  Since  when  has  uncurbed 


DANGERS  OF 

UNCURBED 

POWER 


Page  Thirty-nine 


The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


NO  SOVEREIGN 
POWER 

IN  ANY  CLASS 


LIBERTY 


human  power  stopped  at  the  portals  of  justice? 
The  only  hope  of  the  future  lies  in  preserving 
the  supreme  power  of  the  state  and  in  guarding 
against  a rival  power  in  private  hands. 

Socialism  has  much  more  to  say  for  itself 
than  the  Closed  Shop.  It  follows  the  principles 
of  Christianity.  Everybody  is  in  on  the  ground 
floor.  There  is  no  one  out  in  the  cold.  The 
Closed  Shop  too  often  denies  the  Brotherhood 
of  Man.  The  outsider  is  a scab  and  an  industrial 
outlaw.  The  insiders  have  special  privileges. 
It  encourages  combat,  bitterness  and  tyranny. 
Socialism  entrusts  peoples’  rights  to  the  govern- 
ment as  a neutral  agency.  The  Closed  Shop 
government  entrusts  the  rights  of  its  members 
and  others  to  a class  institution. 

Sovereign  power  must  not  be  vested  in  any 
class  institution.  A democratic  state  functions 
for  all  classes  of  citizens  and  all  classes  of  citizens 
are  allowed  to  participate  in  its  control.  That 
alone  justifies  its  exercise  of  sovereign  power. 
Such  a government  is  responsible  to  all  classes 
of  people  and  all  classes  of  people  are  responsible 
to  that  government.  Labor  unions  which 
function  for  one  class  only,  and  in  which  only 
one  class  participates,  cannot  be  vested  with 
the  power  of  saying  who  shall  and  who  shall 
not  follow  a trade. 

Liberty  protected  by  public  law  is  a lasting, 


Page  Forty 




The  Open  Shop  and  Industrial  Liberty 


earthly  ideal.  It  is  not  a passing  fantasy  of 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  It 
is  rooted  deep  in  political  practicality,  a whole- 
some fear  of  the  frailties  of  any  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  a deep,  abiding  conviction  that 
the  individual  aspirations  and  incentives  of 
each  citizen  may  not  be  unduly  suppressed. 
We  must  strive,  that  this  liberty  withstand  the 
shock  of  all  attacks,  whether  they  emanate 
from  the  state  or  private  citizens,  the  rich  or 
the  poor,  a Czar  of  Russia  or  the  Bolshevists  of 
Russia.  Unless  this  ideal  survives  as  one  of 
the  primary  concepts  of  modern  society,  cen- 
turies of  human  struggle  have  been  in  vain 
and  the  great  inspirations  which  have  led  men 
on  the  battlefield  of  suffering  and  horror,  have 
been  false  and  wasted  emotions. 


Page  Forty-one 


Date  Due 


Photomount 

Pamphiet 

Binder 


Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc 
\ Makers 


v Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  * ■ 
PAT.  JAH  21, 1908 


S3 


142 


69984 


331 


Merritt 

_ Or>e_n.  SIiod.  Ed  Industrial 


Liberty 


ISSUED  TO 


DATE 


P6S984 


